Moto G GSM Model Now Available in the US, Starts at $179

A couple of weeks back, Motorola stole smartphone headlines with the announcement of its Moto G, an ultra-affordable prepaid phone that would land on U.S. shores. At $179 for the 8GB version, you are looking at a smartphone that still has specs to compete and are good enough to provide you with a decent Android experience, yet won’t be tied to contracts or subsidy pricing. The Nexus 5 at $349 is thought to be a steal in this industry, but the Moto G might just be highway robbery.

The U.S. GSM variants of the Moto G are now available directly through Motorola’s own store. You’ll find the 8GB model at $179 and the 16GB model at $199. If you buy today, your phone will ship on December 2, just in time for the holidays.

For those not familiar, the Moto G sports a 4.5-inch HD (720p) display, quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor, 5MP rear camera, and a 2070mAh battery. You’ll find mostly stock Android 4.3, with a guarantee from Motorola to see Android 4.4 in the near future. On a customization front, the Moto G has 19 different interchangeable backs to give you somewhat of a Moto X with MotoMaker feel, but again, at an extremely discounted price. Oh, it also has an unlockable bootloader. Full specs can be found here.

If there is one downside to the phone, it happens in the LTE department. To keep the price as low as it is, Motorola had to make a cut somewhere. That cut involved leaving out an LTE radio, but that makes sense since LTE chips tend to be quite pricey. Thankfully, the GSM model (that’s available today) should see pretty decent speeds depending on the network you choose to attach it to. When the CDMA model drops in January, life won’t be quite as fast.